A camping weekend

This past weekend, we went camping at Presqu'ile Provincial Park -- in Brighton on Lake Ontario -- with our friends Rob and Vone, and their kids, Lilo and Isla.

It was a gorgeous weekend, sunny and hot from the time we got there on Friday afternoon until the time we left on Sunday afternoon. Our campsites were side by side, and by 6 p.m.-ish, we were all set up and ready to enjoy the weekend.

We brought something extra with us this year -- bikes. Now that we've been enjoying family bike rides, we bought a bike rack for the car and brought our bikes with us. So Austin and Lilo spent many hours over the weekend just biking along the quiet campground road in front of our sites. And, on Saturday morning, we packed our towels in a back pack and biked to the beach.

The beach at Presqu'ile is really nice -- big and sandy -- although the water is kind of murky (it is Lake Ontario afterall). Although there were signs at the park entrance saying swimming wasn't recommened due to high bacteria levels, we swam anyway. (And just showered off when we were done).

So, on Saturday morning, we played at the beach for a couple of hours and then biked back to our campsites for lunch. Relaxed for a bit while the kids watched a movie and then biked out to the general store to get ice cream in the mid-afternoon.

Sunday morning was much of the same, although we drove to the beach because we had to get back to our campsites in time to pack up by 2 p.m.

Evenings were filled with campfires, roasting marshmellows (and making smores) and playing board games. The kids all stayed up late both nights to roast marshmellows but that didn't seem to matter much when it came time to wake up -- both days, Austin and Alex were up no later than 8 a.m. But other than that, we can't complain, they slept fairly well in the tent. (It helps that the nights were warm enough (unlike some previous camping trips) so that no one woke up because they were cold.)

All in all, a great trip -- although it's always nice to come home and wash the dirt and grime away.

I'd share some pictures, but unfortunately, we forgot our camera at home (oops!) so we only have the few that I took on my Blackberry.

Austin helping daddy set up our tent 

All four kids hanging out in Alex's camping bed (for those who've never seen it, it's a mini-tent meant for the under 5 crowd -- we take it everywhere and she loves sleeping in it) in our tent. 

Austin and Lilo just 'hanging out'